Laurie’s first London appearance was in 1922 at the Old Vic, where he later starred in most of the leading Shakespearean roles, including Hamlet and Macbeth. With the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, he appeared as Richard III and Othello. He played King Lear in Australia in 1959 and appeared as Gloucester at the Aldwych Theatre in 1964 in a production of King Lear that later toured Europe and the U.S. Laurie also acted in a number of films, including Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), Fanny by Gaslight (1944), and Uncle Silas (1947). His radio work includes the role of John the Baptist in the radio production of Dorothy L. Sayers’s The Man Born to Be King (1941–42).

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publicly financed broadcasting system in Great Britain, operating under royal charter. It held a monopoly on television in Great Britain from its introduction until 1954 and on radio until 1972. Headquarters are in the Greater London borough of Westminster.